Putting the green back into Greenbelt

Concern had been noted on social media about a perceived lack of environmental awareness at the popular Christian arts festival, which takes place each year over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Ruth offered to help refocus the event on green issues. She worked alongside the organisers to make ecology central. ‘We didn’t just want to do one or two seminars on it,’ said Ruth, ‘but send a strong feeling through the festival.’

She devised various categories including – ‘greening Greenbelt’, which looked at energy use and recycling; ‘creating nature’, which encouraged ecology in the arts; and ‘experiencing nature’, which encouraged people to engage with the natural world around the new festival site at Boughton House. As a result, the 2014 event offered such features as foraging walks, den building in the woods and worship activities connecting people to ‘God as Creator and God in creation’.